What's wrong with America?

[TalkingDog]

Clean Energy: Why Is China Ahead of the U.S.?
Solar Start-Up in New Jersey Said China Gave Them a Deal They Couldn't Refuse

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/clean-energy-china-ahead-us/story?id=10934443

This paragraph says it all:
Provini, whose company licenses technology developed at Houston's Rice University, said that for about a year, he went back and forth with representatives at the Ohio Department of Development. He said he also worked with a major Washington, D.C., law firm and was told that a $750,000 application fee was necessary just to apply for a specific federal program.



Nutshell: too much bullshit red tape for products that solve problems and not enough oversight for those that cause them.

Theme for today: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Ralph Waldo Emerson

[patrice]

1. Some of the regulation DOES need to be internal to the field(s) themselves, but it NEEDS to be

from the bottom-up, where the work is done, where the outcomes are clearest, NOT from the board-room down.

[TalkingDog]

2. The spouse and I were discussing BP this morning and

he suggested that instead of firing the head's of the Company or just "cutting" their pay; that they should be demoted...have their rank busted. Put them back down in middle management.

That would definitely solve the problem of disconnected management. Unfortunately those positions are as political as any in DC...mere rank has no sway over power and money.

[patrice]

3. And therein lies one of America's most serious problems: We are NOT a meritocracy, no matter how

rich some people get.

All of us need to take a close and honest look at what "our" notion of value is, evaluate it critically, and act to change it in our own behaviors.

[TalkingDog]

6. Jeebus: Shrubs election should have made that crystal clear....n/t

[patrice]

9. There's a whole bunch of fucking LIARS out there confusing HELL out of almost everyone:

1. MSM
2. ChurchCo
3. . . .

[Scuba]

4. Sounds like more of Cheney's work to eliminate competition to oil

[spanone]

5. we have a corrupt government...pay for play

[ozymandius]

8. That's it.

Many barriers have been erected and remain in place for impeding those interests that may upset the status-quo. Occasionally, those interests do need to be impeded but solely on the merits of their objectives - not on the ability to pay.

[glitch]

11. Only if you're not an oil crony. If you are then it's play for pay. nt

[spanone]

14. i believe it applies to any and all congressional endeavors

money talks...nothing else

[glitch]

17. Oil cronies are given massive taxpayer money which they then return in dribblets to Congress.

Believe me, they get more than they give.

[ejpoeta]

7. we rest on our laurels and think too highly of ourselves.

we think so highly of ourselves in fact that we refuse to see our faults or the areas where we need to seriously do something to fix it. and unless we get our collective heads out of our asses and actually look at ourselves as a country we are going to be screwed.

[90-percent]

10. The most wrong thing

Is that we are past the middle of a pernicious effort to turn our country into a TOTALITARIAN FASCIST CORPORATE CONTROLLED POLICE STATE.

We are already there, it's just that most of us don't realize it yet.

9-11 changed everything, especially the number of Constitutions Rights that still apply to the American Citizen.

-90% Jimmy

[conscious evolution]

21. +1

[Tansy_Gold]

12. K&R

here, too

:hi:

[Zorra]

13. Long term laissez faire capitalism has resulted

in a complex maze of destructive policies produced by the historical as well as the current influence of private wealth in government.

The government has increasingly become the tool of private wealth, and therefore government functions for the interests of wealthy private entities no matter how destructive these interests are to the well being of life on the planet as well as the planet itself.

The ramifications of long term laissez faire capitalism are so ingrained and entwined within our system that it is irreparable. The private entities that are served by the government are more powerful than the government itself. These entities control a substantial enough portion of the media that they can ensure influence and control over the minds and actions a large enough percentage of the population, with the result that the overall population cannot unite and take control of the government.

Unfortunately, the motivation for action by these powerful, wealthy private entities is profit at any cost, without regard for any destructive consequences that may result from their actions.

"The global power of the financial centers is so great, that they can afford not to worry about the political tendency of those who hold power in a nation, if the economic program (in other words, the role that nation has in the global economic megaprogram) remains unaltered. The financial disciplines impose themselves upon the different colors of the world political spectrum in regards to the government of any nation. The great world power can tolerate a leftist government in any part of the world, as long as the government does not take measures that go against the needs of the world financial centers. But in no way will it tolerate that an alternative economic, political and social organization consolidate. For the megapolitics, the national politics are dwarfed and submit to the dictates of the financial centers..."

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezln/1997/jigsaw.html

What is wrong with America?

An analogy might answer this question in a "nutshell":

The system has full blown AIDS. There is no known cure at this time.

[old mark]

15. The creeping stupid was elevated to legitimacy in the Gingrich/W. eras...

we are still trying to get over it, but it sticks like shit on a blanket.

mark

[Obamanaut]

16. We elect weasels. When we discover they are weasels, we reelect

them anyway - often many times. Then we wonder why weasels are screwing stuff up.

"We" are the answer to the question.

[Dr.Phool]

18. K&R

Weasels in, Weasels out.

[Zoeisright]

19. Most people in this country are backward and reactive.

I just can't believe that we went exactly the wrong way on energy. That's what turned me from a repuke into a Democrat - the environment. Repukes think pollution is just fine, and then these idiotic numb skulls vote for them based on their hate for anyone different (i.e. brown skin).

This country deserves to fail. Because we're too stupid to live.

[Greyhound]

20. If only a fraction of the blackmail money had gone to this kind of bottom-up stimulus.

Every tiny crumb that did go into this kind of investment has paid dividends already, it's just too little to notice unless you look very closely.

The SBA should be completely re-done/replaced. A direct lending source and education center, production makes an economy, not corporate welfare programs.
:kick: & R

[whopis01]

22. What isn't wrong with America? n/t